Up to 80% of mobile devs say engagement strategies are losing effectiveness

• 45% find it difficult to retain and engage spending players.
• 39% report challenges in personalising experiences for different player segments.
• 74% rely on lifecycle marketing and community-driven engagement strategies.

Up to 80% of mobile game developers believe the industry's engagement and retention strategies are becoming stale as 51% struggle to balance monetisation friction with a fun player experience.

That's according to a new survey of 195 mobile games industry leaders commissioned by ZBD, which showed that 45% are finding it difficult to retain and engage their spending players. 

Meanwhile, 39% cited challenges in tailoring experiences to different user segments.

There are 74% using lifecycle marketing tools such as push notifications and email campaigns, while an equal percentage use community and social features. Another 71% run live ops events, promotions and other ongoing content updates.

However, many believe innovation is being held back by player expectations and behaviour (40%), technical and infrastructure limitations (38%) and concerns that experimentation could negatively affect existing KPIs (37%).

Future growth drivers 

Looking ahead, developers see greater personalisation as the biggest opportunity, with 45% identifying AI-driven targeting and segmentation tools as the most promising area for improvement. 

In-game rewards and loyalty systems followed at 43%, while 37% pointed to stronger collaboration between product, monetisation and marketing teams. 

Interest in rewards-based engagement is particularly strong, with 90% of respondents having considered implementing in-game rewards systems, including real-money rewards. Of those, 31% are already testing such features and 38% are planning future implementation.

Half of the surveyed studios plan to increase spending on retention and re-engagement initiatives, while 42% expect budgets to remain unchanged. Furthermore, 82% of developers said they are confident they have the resources needed to achieve their retention and monetisation objectives.

"Mobile games can’t rely on buying growth forever," said Turborilla CEO John Wright. “CPIs continue to rise, making retention the ‘new UA’ and the fastest path to scale, and increasingly about creating more value from players you’ve already acquired. 

“The studios that win won’t be the ones with the biggest content calendars, but the ones that turn engagement, loyalty, and monetisation into experiences players actively want to return to, time and time again." 

You can access the full report here.